subway advertising (cr)

[zhengs482]

this question is in the cat test2:
Professor: In an effort to combat stagnating revenues, an apparel company launched a special six-month advertising campaign, purchasing fifty percent of the poster space on the subway trains of ten major cities. The tactic was risky due to the large outlay of funds required, but the results demonstrate that the campaign was a resounding success. During the months of the campaign, sales climbed to record levels, and the company had the number one ranking in market share.

The answer to which of the following would be most useful in evaluating the professor's argument?


a/What percent of subway riders were aware of the apparel company prior to the campaign?
b/How profitable was the company during the months of the campaign?
c/Were revenues throughout the apparel industry stagnant in the months prior to the campaign?
d/Did any of the company’s divisions experience a significant reduction in sales?
e/At the time of the campaign, did the company significantly increase spending on other forms of marketing?

i answered "d".
because if the gains were not enough to counter the high cost of the campaign, it is not successful.
so i chose d and move on, without looking into other answers.
when reexamining answer choice e, i can understand why it works.
however,i still don't understand why "d" is wrong!
please help me. thank you!

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

The answer to this question is E.

First, I think you should examine your strategy. You write that you "chose d and move on, without looking into other answers". That's a dangerous move! The question asks "which of the following would be most useful" so you should compare the answers to find the best one. Plus, for all questions, check out all the answer choices as it's easy to forget something.

I agree with you that if we were evaluating the argument fully, looking at the whole company would be important. However, you're making an assumption yourself: "if the gains were not enough to counter the high cost of the campaign, it is not successful". How do we know that? What about profits in the future? In any case, answer B is also concerned with profitability during those months and, logically, when two answers are the same, both must be wrong.